"I'm speechless," said
Board President Steven Sabo after the budget numbers were read.

Sabo said his board now
has three choices: offer the same budget again, offer the budget with some
changes or go to a budget with no increase that would mean no music, no sports
and possibly no kindergarten.

Sabo said he personally
would recommend the first option to the board at its Wednesday, May 22, meeting
(after the Tribune went to press). He said the school district already has
pretty much maxed out increasing class sizes, and further cuts will affect all
grades and all buildings.

New York state voters
approved 95.5 percent of school district budgets on Tuesday, according to an
early analysis Wednesday by the New York State School Boards Association. There
was a 98 percent passage rate for school districts within the tax cap; a 30 percent
passage rate for districts exceeding cap. Schools statewide proposed an average
tax levy increase of 2.8 percent for 2013-14, according to NYSSBA.
Niagara-Wheatfield was asking for a 5.91 percent tax levy increase, but it was
within its state cap limit.

Pittman, a Town of Niagara resident, will
begin her term on June 30. A nurse manager in the intensive care unit at Mount
St. Mary's Hospital and Health Center, she is the mother of three N-W grads and
one current 10th-grader. A former N-W board member, she returned to fill a
vacancy last November.

"You say 'tighten the belt,' I don't know
where that's going to come from," said Pittman, a longtime proponent of the
district's music program. "I think we have a lot of difficulty ahead of us."

Deull, a Wheatfield resident, will begin
her three-year term on July 1. The co-founder of the Niagara County Patriots,
she had been at the high school polling place all day, but wasn't inside the
Adult Learning Center when the final numbers were announced. She had emphasized
during her campaign that she was interested in sound financial management to
ensure best educational opportunities for students within available funds.

"Students, parents, school employees, and
taxpayers are all partners in this effort and must all be respected. We can't
solve problems by throwing money at them," she said.

District Clerk Robin Vertino, a veteran of
N-W elections, said in the past the majority of budgets won voter approval.
Last year, the $61.78 million budget, which was over the tax cap and required a
60 percent super majority, was defeated by 292 votes. The board reduced that
budget to $60.5 million, which passed. The 2004 budget would have needed 32
votes to pass, but was rejected by voters. The board put up the same budget for
a second vote and it passed, she said.

In other election
matters, the proposition allowing a student to serve on the board of education
as an ex officio, non-voting member passed 1,855 to 1,107.